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Marleen Eijkholt, Ph.D., LL.B/LL.M joins Davidson this fall as assistant professor of Medical Humanities. Immediately prior to Davidson, Eijkholt was a Clinical Ethics Fellow at the Alden March Bioethics Institute at Albany Medical Center. At AMBI, she consulted on the ethical issues that arise in the practice of medicine, such as post-mortem sperm retrieval, withdrawal and withholding of life-saving treatment, issues around birth and pregnancy, anorexia and force-feeding, surrogate decision-making issues, moral distress, and resuscitation.

She helped to develop hospital policies for the clinical and research setting and developed a course in neuroethics. In addition she assisted in mentoring students and professionals about ethical dilemmas in health care.

Before arriving at AMBI, Eijkholt was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the National Core for Neuroethics in Vancouver (Canada). She worked on a many projects, but her main project focused on the risks of experimental stem cell interventions for spinal cord injury, as perceived by individuals with a spinal cord injury and health care professionals.

Eijkholt 's background is in law and bioethics, with a particular focus on international comparative health law, human rights, and legal theory. She has an LL.B/LL.M degree from the Maastricht University (NL), and a Ph.D. in Bioethics and Medical Jurisprudence from the University of Manchester (UK), which focused on the right to procreate. She held associate lecturer positions in diverse institutions and was awarded several prestigious grants, amongst which the "Talent for the Future" scholarship in Maastricht. Eijkholt was at the Bioethics Committee of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg (FR) from January to April 2010.

Eijkholt combines legal, theoretical, philosophical, and clinical ethical approaches in her work. She is excited to combine both theory and clinical reality in her professional life as an educator, researcher, and consultant.